We first heard of Siwa in a travel magazine onboard an airplane. It was immediately appealing – a desert oasis, as far west of Cairo as you could be, bordering on Libya. Blue skies, endless soft sand of the Sahara Desert, hot and cold springs in the middle of nowhere, and isolation you’d have difficulty matching these days. And it wasn’t just a mirage – all of this, just 9 hours by night bus from Cairo. The bus is horrendous… but Siwa is surreal.